Patience with Pad Thai

According to a friend of my husband’s, “Pad Thai is like cheeseburgers. Everyone has a recipe and thinks they hold the secret ingredient. Truth of it is, its all just a different take on a fairly easy dish.”

I will admit that Pad Thai, although mostly noodles, held an intimidation factor for me. For one, it is a personal favorite dish served up in my neighborhood pub. What if what I create doesn’t compare on any level to my favorite pub’s masterpiece? Two, the style of dish was new and I had very little expertize in this area.

For the first attempt (can anyone guess where I’m going with this?), I did some research and opted for a 30-minute fool proof Pad Thai recipe courtesy of my husband’s subscription to Cook’s Country magazine. The easy-to-follow instructions made it seem easy peasy. What could go wrong?

D) All of the above would be the correct answer. Fool-proof my rear end. Not understanding the delicate nature of the rice-based noodles, I hard-boiled them past their prime and then attempted to fry the gooey mass of starch. It wasn’t pretty and the burned smell lingered for at least a day.

Back to the horse we go. I found a different recipe — one that explained a bit more, offered a bit more instruction (hand holding) and made it seem easy with the deception of being totally easy. I grabbed my apron and headed for the kitchen.

The second time around turned out way better. Instead of dropping the delicate noodles into boiling water, I pulled the hot water off the burner and let it sit a few minutes before adding the ingredient. They were soft enough to be eaten, but still firm and a little “crunchy” at this point before adding them to the pan.

However, I did err a bit the other direction and they could have been fried a bit longer than they were. I was petrified of over cooking. In the end, eatable — but could use a bit of finesse or tweaking. Like I said, a learning process.

Directions:Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Remove pot from burner and wait a few minutes before dunking your rice noodles. You will be frying the noodles later, so you don’t want to over-soften them now. Noodles are ready to be drained when they are soft enough to be eaten, but still firm and a little “crunchy”. Drain and rinse with cold water to prevent sticking. Set aside.

Make pad Thai sauce by combining the sauce ingredients together in a cup. Stir well to dissolve tamarind and brown sugar, and set aside. NOTE: I used less sugar and added a bit of mustard. This is to your taste.

Warm up a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add 1-2 Tbsp. oil plus garlic and minced chili, if using. Stir-fry until fragrant (30 seconds). Add marinated chicken. When wok/pan becomes dry, add a little chicken stock, 1-2 Tbsp. at a time, to keep the chicken frying nicely (5-7 minutes, until cooked is cooked).

Add the noodles, and pour the Pad Thai sauce over. Using two utensils, use a gentle “lift and turn” method to fry noodles (like tossing a salad). Stir-fry in this way 1-2 minutes. If you find your wok/frying pan too dry, push noodles aside and add a little more oil to the bottom of the pan.

Add the bean sprouts and and continue frying 1 more minute, or until noodles are cooked. Noodles are done to perfection when they are no longer “hard” or crunchy, but chewy-sticky wonderful! Taste-test for seasoning, adding more fish sauce until desired flavor is reached. Toss well to incorporate.

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Hi! I’m Weegee!

About Me

I’m a writer/blogger/marketer/creative living in Gibsons, BC with a tendency to fly by the seat of my pants, sample fantastic micro-brews and spin epic tales. I write about life lessons learned the hard way, living a vegan-ish lifestyle and my creative attempts.